How to specify switch stack master

[Silas1066]

I added a MS350 to an existing stack of two switches recently, and the new one became the master of the stack.

This ended up creating issues, and I had to upgrade the firmware, power down the third switch, etc. in order to get things corrected.

Is there any way to specify that a particular switch remains the master of the stack (switch 1 for instance--the one with the uplink port to the Internet)? If I have to add a 4th switch, I don't want the same thing happening.

[ww]

no. 

switch with the lowest MAC address takes master role

[Silas1066]

Do I need to worry about this creating a problem if I add a 4th switch to the stack? What if it becomes master?

[BrandonS]

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@ww wrote:

no. 

switch with the lowest MAC address takes master role

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Really?  Is that documented somewhere?

[BrandonS]

When you had the issue did you follow the documented steps exactly? 

https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Stacking/Switch_Stacks#Configuring_a_Physical_Switch_Stack

[Silas1066]

Yes, but in this case it was a bit different

I was not creating a new stack: I was adding an already configured switch to an existing stack.

I made sure the firmware was all the same, powered down the stack (and the third switch), and then added the new switch by re-arranging the stacking cables in the correct order.

When the stack reloaded, I went to stack management and added the third switch to the existing stack.

Problem is, because the MAC address was lower on that switch, it took over the master role 

[meraki-newbie]

i don't know it's still be a problem with you or not, but recently we faced the same problem, when we added the new switch that has lower mac address and create stack the existing switch as a stack together, the newer one become active role due to lower mac address

our approach is rebooted the newer one, and the active role move to the existing/older one..

referred to this documentation 

https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Stacking/Switch_Stacks#Configuring_a_Physical_Switch_Stack

[Adam]

You can also go to Switch>Switch Settings and set the STP Bridge Priority as the stack but I wasn't aware of making one priority over the other.  Once they are a stack they are basically one switch.  The vlans, routes etc will be on all switches in the stack. 

[PhilipDAth]

I think you missed a critical step - and that is to simply plug in the switch and add it to your network, and then leave it for 45 minutes to upgrade its software.

If the software version was the same you should not have had any issues.

[Silas1066]

That wasn't it

remember that this switch had been added to the network weeks before as a stand-alone and was running the same firmware revision as the others.